A compensating ramp changes the slope at which a reference voltage intersects with the current sense voltage signal. Conventional current-mode controlled DC to DC (DC/DC) converters operating above 50% duty cycle need a compensating ramp signal superimposed on a current sense signal, which is used as a control parameter, to avoid "open loop instability" or "subharmonic oscillation".
To avoid subharmonic oscillation, the slope of the current sense voltage during ON time (m.sub.up) must be greater than the reflected slope (m.sub.do), where the reflected slope is the change between the ending amplitude of the current sense voltage and its starting amplitude at the beginning of the next cycle, divided by the OFF time. m.sub.up is usually less than m.sub.do for a &gt;50% duty cycle. Therefore, to make m.sub.up greater than m.sub.do, a ramp signal having additional slope is superimposed onto the current sense signal.
In the past, the compensating ramp signal was formed by scaling the system's oscillator timing signal and adding it to the current sense voltage or deducting it from the error amplifier's output voltage. The necessary slope of the compensating ramp signal is dependent upon the input and output voltage of the DC/DC converter and the value of the inductor used. In transformer coupled systems, the necessary slope is also dependent upon the transformer's turn ratio.
Traditional systems set the ramp signal's slope to accommodate for the worst case conditions: maximum output voltage (in variable output voltage systems only) and minimum input voltage. By designing the slope to accommodate for the worst case situation, under normal operating conditions, the slope and accordingly the amplitude of the ramp is higher than necessary. For example, in wide input range systems, the amplitude is often two to three times higher than necessary for stability.
There are two primary disadvantages associated with having a compensating ramp signal with excessive slope. First, the maximum available output current of the system is limited; the steeper the slope, the lower the amount of current available at current limit. Second, the phase margin of the amplitude control loop is decreased.